Description

An admitted shoe geek waxes philosophical about running, triathlon, and life in general.
Comments welcome!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Sign me up!

Signing up for events... In the past, it's caused me to get injured. At least signing up for RUNNING events.

Okay,
"caused" is not scientifically correct, as correlation does not equal
causation. But it's also hard to argue with the number of times I've
gotten injured within days of signing up for an event. In more than one
case, it's happened the day after I signed up.

Cycling
events, though, have been a little different. So I'm less nervous about
losing the opportunity for participating after paying for the privilege.

Maybe
it's the nature of the events themselves... Running races (and even
more so, triathlons) for me are more competitive. I'm gunning for place,
age group and even overall. For cycling events, I've left behind the
days of vying for overall placing, so USAC-style team racing is in my
past, there to remain forevermore. Been there, done that, took a lot of
pain and transformation to get there, not interested in going through
that again.

No, the cycling events I'm doing now are more mass-participation, challenge rides. Some track finish times, some don't.

And so this past week I've signed up for two cycling events.

The
first is Chilly Hilly, which happens this coming Sunday. As the name
suggests, the course is quite hilly. Not in the mountainous sense that
RAMROD is hilly, but short sprinter-type hills that challenge leg
strength and gear selection. A 36 or so mile circumnavigation of
Bainbridge Island. I've done this course several times over the years,
and done it as this event one other time some 20 years ago.

The
very nature of dumping several waves of a thousand cyclists a pop of
varying ability (or lack thereof) onto fairly narrow and undulating
country roads negates any ambitions of speed for at least several miles.
Add to this that the ride is considered by many the first time the bike
has been dusted off since September of the previous year, and you can
imagine what the road looks like -- weaving all over, paying little
attention to anything that's not directly ahead... It can be a
bike-handling challenge. In the one year I did this event, I had one
rider stall out on a hill directly in front of me. Did the whole
Laugh-In stop and fall over. I had to dodge left swiftly to avoid
hitting him. It should be loads of fun.

The
second, which is both bigger and smaller, is the Gran Fondo Leavenworth. Yep, one of the events I mentioned in a previous post as
falling on a not-so-convenient date (being the day after my wife's
birthday). Well, she actually gave this event the nod, as it's not
actually ON her birthday, and can be made into a nice weekend get-away
in a town she's never visited before. Leavenworth is a Bavarian-style
tourist town nestled into the eastern Cascades. And when I say
"Bavarian-style", I mean it's REALLY Bavarian-style, right down to the
shop proprietors wearing Lederhosen and knee socks.

The bigger aspect? This
event is 87 miles of mixed paved roads and Forest Service roads,
including three passes. Could be the equivalent of 120 or more road
miles by the time it's all said and done, as far as the physical toll. The smaller aspect? It's limited to 200 riders.

This will be a new kind of adventure for me. I've done road events, mountain bike races, cyclocross races (on my mountain bike), tours... Never a mixed-surface event of this magnitude. And it's a timed event. There will be packs, which I'm sure will be "up the road" from where I'm riding... Fine by me.

Eric
is going to do this event as well -- our families are going to share a
house rental for the weekend. He was looking at a Kona Jake earlier this
month at Inspired Ride, where I work part time... Now he HAS to go get that
bike, as his Trek won't accept anything more than 23mm tires...

I
was just thinking this past weekend that this is two years running
where I've suggested an event, and he's gotten a new bike to do the
event. As a bike shop employee, I'm evil...

About Me

I’ve been running since I was in jr high in the late 70’s, and added triathlon in 1984. The sports have changed a lot since, but I see a lot of “returning to its roots" happening in the running world. Along with it, I’m rediscovering a lot of the child-like wonder of beginning all over again. I’ve always been very free with sharing any experience I've gained, whether it’s work related or athletic related. And I’ve continued that with my online interactions.

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